Python Objects and Classes

We know that python also supports the concept of objects and classes.

An object is simply a collection of data (variables) and methods (functions).

Similarly, a class is a blueprint for that object.

Before we learn about objects, let's first know about classes in Python.

Python Classes

A class is considered as a blueprint of objects. We can think of the class

as a sketch (prototype) of a house. It contains all the details about the
floors, doors, windows, etc. Based on these descriptions we build the
house. House is the object.

Since many houses can be made from the same description, we can
create many objects from a class.

Define Python Class

We use the  class  keyword to create a class in Python. For example,

Here, we have created a class named  ClassName .

Let's see an example,
 Here,

 Bike  - the name of the class

 name/gear  - variables inside the class with default values  ""  and 0 respectively.

Note: The variables inside a class are called attributes.

Python Objects
An object is called an instance of a class. For example, suppose  Bike  is a
class then we can create objects like  bike1 ,  bike2 , etc from the class.
Here's the syntax to create an object.

Let's see an example,

Here,  bike1  is the object of the class. Now, we can use this object to access
the class attributes.
Access Class Attributes Using Objects
We use the  .  notation to access the attributes of a class. For example,

Here, we have used  bike1.name  and  bike1.gear  to change and access the value
of  name  and  gear  attribute respectively.

Example 1: Python Class and Objects

Output
In the above example, we have defined the class named  Bike  with two
attributes:  name  and  gear .
We have also created an object  bike1  of the class  Bike .
Finally, we have accessed and modified the attributes of an object using
the  .  notation.

Create Multiple Objects of Python Class

We can also create multiple objects from a single class. For example,

Output

In the above example, we have created two objects  employee1  and  employee2  of
the  Employee  class.
 Python Methods
We can also define a function inside a Python class. A Python
Function defined inside a class is called a method.
Let's see an example,

Output

In the above example, we have created a class named  Room  with:

 Attributes:  length  and  breadth
 Method:  calculate_area()

Here, we have created an object named  study_room  from the  Room  class. We
then used the object to assign values to attributes:  length  and  breadth .
Notice that we have also used the object to call the method inside the class,

Here, we have used the  .  notation to call the method. Finally, the statement
inside the method is executed.

Python Constructors
Earlier we assigned a default value to a class attribute,

However, we can also initialize values using the constructors. For example,

Here,  __init__()  is the constructor function that is called whenever a new
object of that class is instantiated.
The constructor above initializes the value of the  name  attribute. We have used
the  self.name  to refer to the  name  attribute of the  bike1  object.
If we use a constructor to initialize values inside a class, we need to pass the
corresponding value during the object creation of the class.
Here,  "Mountain Bike"  is passed to the  name  parameter of  __init__() .